Hiding From Insanity
by noonesuspectsthepuff
Summary: A tribute story. Set sometime before the 74th Annual Hunger Games, Sammie volunteers and is sent to take part in the Games. During training she meets Damien, and they instantly become friends. But he's nowhere near normal. Rating may change.


A/N: This is my first fanfiction, and to be honest I have no clue what I'm doing. Written in competition with my friend Owen. So if you like it, review it, I guess. Any mkstakes are my own.

The story world belongs to Suzanne Collins, but the characters are all of my own creation.

I crash through the trees, almost hitting my head on one of the branches. I duck at the last minute, throwing my hands in front of me to keep my balance. I can't fall over. They'll catch up with me, whoever they are.

There, at the edge of the forest. Four figures. Three of them I know, one I don't, but something tells me I will do soon. My mother. My father. My sister. The mystery figure.

I grab my sister's and my father's wrists. They disappear. They're safe. I grab the wrist of the mystery figure and he disappears too. But I'm too late. They have my mother. I've lost her.

Then they turn on me. My mother is gone, and soon I will be too, and it's my fault, and I know I'm going to die.

But before I do, I wake up.

I rub sleep from my blue eyes as I walk into the training room for the first day of training. I don't want to be here - no one does, really. I didn't get much sleep last night. Too many nightmares, too many memories of years past. And memories of the reaping, where it was my sister who would've had to fight to the death, if I hadn't stood up and decided that it was time to be the strong one. I tuck my long dark brown hair behind my ear. I cast my eyes around the room and see a small group of tributes in one corner. I recognise the tributes from reapings and chariots - Jacob from District 5, Eddie from District 2, and Damien from District 4. I walk over to them. 2 of them are careers. Like me, I guess. I should be welcome with them.

I walk over to them, almost walking into another tribute (who I believe is named Kate) and clear my throat. "Room for one more?" I ask confidently. Damien looks up at me, the lighting in the room making his green eyes sparkle.

"You a career?" he asks in reply. His voice is lower than I was expecting. And he doesn't look at me like I'm another piece of meat, like most careers would. He looks at me as if I'm an old friend, someone he knew once and has only just seen again.

I nod. "Yeah. Sammie, District 1." Well, I'm from a career district. I never trained properly. I spent my life hiding so I could be alone with my thoughts instead of going to school and training. They don't need to know that, though.

"Sammie, huh? Short for Samantha?" he says, raising an eyebrow. No one has called me Samantha since... Since before my mother left. I liked it when she called me Samantha, but no one else. Not even Damien, no matter how nice it sounds when he says it.

"Well, we'll leave you two being all lovey-dovey," Eddie jokes. "Come on Jacob. Let's actually do some training." I watch them walk away before turning back to Damien. I never really noticed before now, but his hair isn't just one colour. It's brown underneath, but the ends of his spiked up hair are blonde. Sun-bleached probably, considering he's from District 4. It suits him.

"Yes, short for Samantha. But don't call me that." I reply. I glare at him for a second to show him I'm serious, but he just bursts out laughing. I have to stop myself from laughing with him.

"I like it, though!" he says between short bursts of laughter. "How can a person hate their name that much?"

"It's a long story. You wouldn't want to know." I say. He gets up off the floor and starts heading to the trees that have been set up for climbing.

"Maybe I do want to know. Come on Samantha. I'm Damien, by the way. Welcome to the alliance."

I climb quickly to the top of the trees, Damien next to me. Climbing is one of my skills, and I've always loved doing it. Trees, buildings... If it could be climbed, I've climbed it. I sit on the highest branch, Damien coming to sit next to me. We don't need to talk. Just sat up, away from the rest of the tributes down below, is good enough. Two tributes down below, the girl from 6 Alexis and Damien's district partner Blair, look like they're arguing, but up here it's quiet. "So what are you good at, Samantha?" Damien says suddenly, his voice soft.

"Well, climbing, obviously. I'm pretty fast. And I'm a good swimmer. I fight with a dagger." I say, shrugging. I mean, I'm good at swimming compared to most of my district, although compared to him I'll be terrible, but hey, nothing I can do about that. "What are you good at?"

"A lot of things." he replies vaguely. We sit in silence for a few more minutes before he speaks again, this time his voice just a whisper. "Do you hear the voices, Samantha Gipattez?" I shake my head, and he must've seen me out the corner of his eye, since he seems to be staring blankly into space. "They're always there. They say you're bad for me. But I don't think you are, Samantha Gipattez. I think the voices are wrong for once." he finishes. The whole time he'd been fiddling with a piece of material around his wrist. I hadn't seen it earlier. I think about what he said. I don't know what the voices are, or who they belong to. But I push it to the back of my mind, and start climbing back down, Damien following me in his trance-like state.

The first time it happens, it's a few hours after we were up in the trees, and we're training over at the bladed weapons, me with a dagger and him with a chain scythe. All was calm, me getting a few pointers. I think he can tell I never really trained, but I don't think he cares. Then suddenly he lashes out, yelling in frustration as he cuts the head of a dummy clean off. I stare at him in shock. His face is bright red with anger, and he's muttering to himself. Then he starts screaming at the top of his voice. "No! Go away! Shut up! Leave me alone!"

Everyone in the room turns to face him as he claps his hands over his ears, repeating those four exclamations over and over again. I move to rest a hand on his shoulder, but he pushes me away bluntly. The trainers move forward, but relax again when they see I'm not injured. No one wants to go near him.

Finally he calms down, and slumps onto the ground, head in his hands. His shoulders shake. He's crying. "Go away." he whispers as I sit down next to him. My response is simple.

"I'm not going anywhere."

The next two days fly past in a blur. I remember Damien laughing because he swam twice as many lengths in 5 minutes than I did in 10. I remember failing at Plant ID and just being told to only pick plants that I knew were edible prior to training. I remember ripping apart a dummy with a dagger in my private training, then climbing a tree and making a trap up there. I try to remember every detail but when I close my eyes, all I can see is Damien's face. His perfect smiles, and his eyes, the eyes that hide so many secrets. If you look long enough, you can convince yourself you can see traces of the ghosts in his mind in them.

I got a 6 on my private training. So did he, but while I was pleased with myself, he was a bit upset. He was a career. I guess he expected to get higher than a 6. Jacob got a 6 too. Eddie got a 7. When we asked him how he did it, he responded with "I have absolutrly no idea. I thought I'd do terrible."

I don't see any of them again until the interviews, and even then I don't have time to talk. I'm District 1. I'm the first tribute up. The interviewer, one lady with blue and green hair named Lynnette, introduces me, and I walk onto the stage in a simple blue knee-length dress with a brown belt. My stylist said it 'brings out the colour in my eyes'.

"Good evening, Sammie!" she says. "How are you this evening?"

"I'm fine, thank you for asking!" I reply politely. "And yourself?"

"Oh, just marvellous!" Lynnette says, smiling. "So, first question. How are you enjoying the Capitol?"

"It's nice here. More food than I've probably eaten in a lifetime!" I exclaim, laughing slightly. "But we don't get a lot of freedom. I miss that."

"Oh really? What's it like at home, that you prefer to here?" she asks, and I can hear the curiosity in her voice.

"If I wanted to be alone, I could disappear in a crowd until I got lost in a quiet street, or climb up the highest tree. But here, everyone is watching your every move. I like to think. I don't like having the whole country breathing down my neck." I answer honestly.

Lynnette nods in understanding. "Moving on. Allies? Have them or playing it alone?"

I smile again. "Three allies. Damien, Alfie and Benjamin. Only girl, but hey, at least I won't be facing the Games alone." I should've anticipated the next question, really.

"And what about in the way if love?" Lynnette asks, winking.

I blush. I might not remember much from the last two days, but I figured out what the butterflies in my stomach are, everytime I'm around Damien, and the spark I feel every time our hands brush against each others. "I'm in love with someone, yeah."

"And who?" I wish she'd stop prying - curiosity killed the cat and all - but that's her job. And I have to give her the answer.

I pause for a couple of seconds before answering. "Damien Silver."

The crowd gasp. They love some good old tribute romance. "Well, any last words before you leave, Samantha?"

I remember a song my mother used to sing to me when I went to bed, and I sing it softly. "Tell my sister that I love her, my father that I care. Tell my mother that I miss her, it's not the same now she's not there. Tell the friends I made, that they'll never be alone. It doesn't matter how or why, just tell the world I'm coming home."

I can hear ladies in the audience crying. "That was beautiful, Samantha. Best of luck to you in the games. Samantha Gipattez from District 1, everybody!" I stand up and walk of stage. I don't hang around long enough to hear my district parter Nicholas' interview. I run to my room and fall onto the bed, letting out pent up emotions from years ago.

Tell my sister that I love her. I told her I loved her the second I volunteered for her, and again when I sang that song. She doesn't need to be told by someone else, but in her eyes reminders never hurt.

Tell my father that I care. As much as I hate him for the pain he put me through for years of my life, he knows deep down that I do care for him. Because I couldn't lose him. And I saved my sister, the child he always preferred. I let him be happy for a little while longer.

Tell my mother that I miss her. It's not the same now she's not here. I wish I could. And nothing's the same.

Tell the friends I made, that they'll never be alone. I didn't have friends. My only friends are Damien, Eddie and Jacob, and if I come home, they'll be dead.

It doesn't matter how or why, tell the world I'm coming home.

I hope.


End file.
